tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18901972025282038492024-03-21T22:05:10.506+00:00100 monkeysadrienne campbellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12328146492829739122noreply@blogger.comBlogger202125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1890197202528203849.post-66154060689252909102012-02-16T17:53:00.002+00:002012-02-16T17:56:30.379+00:00freedom ahead<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOprTZA4oLuIuhyphenhyphenFOSJS4DVefi7aioDxjSN04yV731-6X3dGo9vl1aolvRCjTh_U_UUZaAJjGgOkXFW-DjcBpOXDEQS5eoTkrlXchHx6Wft9Cfk5FkBKM8ClbszxSaulHLWeFfRxv4oVFO/s1600/seeds-hands-lg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOprTZA4oLuIuhyphenhyphenFOSJS4DVefi7aioDxjSN04yV731-6X3dGo9vl1aolvRCjTh_U_UUZaAJjGgOkXFW-DjcBpOXDEQS5eoTkrlXchHx6Wft9Cfk5FkBKM8ClbszxSaulHLWeFfRxv4oVFO/s320/seeds-hands-lg.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Six weeks in, and my Year of Buying Nothing New is going pretty
well. Some things, like white paper, have been hard to source. Freegle this
week yielded two bird feeders, and chicken wire for the allotment. I’ve been
borrowing and lending a lot more things like books, and giving away quite a lot
of stuff including my own produce and preserves. I’m buying the seeds we need
this year, though – aiming to save a lot more next year. My Saturday Guardian
has mainly been sourced from the Ellie where I have started to lurk, beer in
hand, towards closing time.<span> </span>Generally,
though, I lack for very little. </div>
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Being in my early 50s, I find that I already have enough
‘stuff’ and clothes, probably, for a lifetime if carefully looked after and
mended. But age isn’t the only factor: buying second-hand and making do with
less seems to come naturally my 22-year old daughter and many of the younger people
in our 36-strong Facebook group. Perhaps it’s because they have less money and
are also more canny and more aware of the problems of the throw away culture. </div>
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I can sense that some of my contemporaries are uncomfortable
with this little experiment and project on to me that it’s an exercise in
righteous self-denial and even self-punishment. Far from it. As anyone who has
experienced fasting or conscious simplicity knows, there can be an increase in
connection, joy and freedom. </div>
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<i>Freedom Ahead</i> is
the title of a lovely new film being shown by Transition Town Lewes this Friday;
<a href="http://www.transitiontownlewes.org/events.html#item526" target="_blank">see here for
the trailer</a>. It documents the lives of a growing number of people across
the world who are turning to the land and a simpler life, with fewer overheads,
less stress and more community and more security. As an eloquent young
Indonesian says in the film, ‘Security is in seeds, not money’.</div>adrienne campbellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12328146492829739122noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1890197202528203849.post-2895303824624663392012-01-20T15:24:00.000+00:002012-01-20T15:24:17.801+00:00checking out from the checkout<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQEDDgYRClLHJ0n3AgAKnQibtUYMnt-WKwv08Hzsaw1R17DTao_lodHfZZg_DzhFOfVi9Yu-p0R-xg3Ol__seK3avtUmhVgmef9edkPQ2aRYNBsCaa67wsroT-5l3g09-PtUAmYTHDZa8g/s1600/tesco.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQEDDgYRClLHJ0n3AgAKnQibtUYMnt-WKwv08Hzsaw1R17DTao_lodHfZZg_DzhFOfVi9Yu-p0R-xg3Ol__seK3avtUmhVgmef9edkPQ2aRYNBsCaa67wsroT-5l3g09-PtUAmYTHDZa8g/s320/tesco.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Today I’m celebrating liberation from supermarkets. I
last stepped into one of these cathedrals of consumerism three months
ago, before the<a href="http://www.lewesoctoberfeast.com/" target="_blank"> Lewes Octoberfeast</a>. Far from being difficult, it’s been a great relief - as though I’ve finally come off a toxic addiction.</div>
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Looking at a recent <a href="http://www.transitiontownlewes.org/assets/files/ShorterResults_ShopLocalEatLocal.pdf" target="_blank">questionnaire about food shopping</a>
by Transition Town Lewes, it appears that I’m joining a growing band
of people seeking supermarket freedom: there are at least 32 people in
Lewes who buy almost all their food from our two markets and local
shops. The others stated that the main barriers to supermarket freedom
are convenience and price. I’m going to argue that this doesn’t have to
be so.</div>
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In the spirit of enquiry, I’ve kept a note this last week of all my
food spending in my little diary. The backbone of our household’s food
spend is a quarterly delivery from Infinity Foods of grocery items,
including pulses, grains, tins, sauces, chocolate, teas, toilet paper
and cleaning products. Everything that’s not fresh gets delivered to our
door, for free; being wholesale it turns out incredible cheap,
apportioned weekly here:<br /> </div>
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£25 Infinity Foods chickpeas, lentils, oats, rice, pasta, noodles, sauces, oils, spices<br />
£50 weekly food market (£6 bread, £8 apples and eggs, £13 meat, £8 veg, £15 cheese)<br />
£26 Pleasant food stores (oranges, lemons, milk, butter, biscuits)<br />
£11 Lansdown (veg sausages, yoghurt and tofu)<br />
£4 potatoes from sack from Ashurst Organics</div>
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Backed up with plentiful greens and some frozen fruit from the
allotment, this weeks’ total food supply, for a family of four adults
came to just under £120 or about £30 a week per person for a diet that’s
entirely organic or biodynamic and where all the fresh stuff is local. </div>
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I think it's so cheap compared to supermarkets because little of this
food is processed or part of the industrial food chain and because I'm
not temped to just buy a few extra treats. <br /> </div>
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It's also convenient: I shop at to the market every
Friday and bike down to Lansdown every Saturday. For dairy and some
treats, one of us drops in at our lovely new Pleasant Stores.<br />
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It’s bliss not to have to deal with supermarkets, which are designed
to dupe us into spending more on things we think we need and bombard us
with choice. I hate all the packaging waste and the lifestyle messaging
that we are fed in a zombie-like accepting way - including the idea that
Waitrose is really much better than the other supermarkets. I’m also
delighted to withdrawing my support of the industrial food system with
all its own fat cats and hidden costs to the earth and people.</div>
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Most importantly, people I know who are shopping this way say they
like putting their positive energy and money into systems worth
supporting: local farmers and shopkeepers, wholefood coops with strong
ethics and a resilient food system that is fit for purpose.</div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Photo by Emily Faulder</span></i>adrienne campbellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12328146492829739122noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1890197202528203849.post-80343900490123511692012-01-05T22:52:00.000+00:002012-01-11T09:14:12.412+00:00bye buy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ym--fyNavps/TwYpZ3bUU_I/AAAAAAAABO0/IK5ULTPn-zo/s1600/stamps.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ym--fyNavps/TwYpZ3bUU_I/AAAAAAAABO0/IK5ULTPn-zo/s320/stamps.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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A few years ago a group of friends in San Francisco formed <a href="http://www.treehugger.com/culture/the-compact-buy-nothing-new-for-a-year-or-two.html">The Compact</a>. Their quest was to buy nothing new for a year. Inspired by them, some of us here are inviting others to join us in <a href="http://www.facebook.com/groups/146629925447242/">A Year of Buying Nothing New.</a>
Our plan is to limit our shopping during 2012 to essential consumable
items such as food, drink, vital health items and certain necessary things
we can’t fix, get second hand or do without.</div>
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<br />
So yesterday I bought some stamps at the post office but packed my
parcels in old cardboard as I’ll not be buying brown paper this year for
packaging. Nor will I buy a food dryer I’ve been coveting or a new pair
of sandals this summer; the old ones will do. Perhaps for me the
challenge will be not to buy newspapers or new books. But maybe not:
there is so much you can get for free.</div>
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<br />
Call me a domestic extremist, but this kind of exploration excites me.
It feels good, and like an appropriate response to our broken
civilization. We all now know that our level of consumption is fast
eating up our non-renewable resources, including minerals, topsoil and
water. Making new things uses fossil fuels that have become so scarce
that we’re turning to even dirtier means such as tar sands and fracking.
And the waste creates toxic landscapes and, worst of all, CO2 which
threatens runaway climate change in our time.</div>
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<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/9GorqroigqM">The Story of Stuff</a> is a lovely little film that explains all this quite simply and why buying less – <i>much</i>
less – is necessary. It’s pretty obvious now that our leaders, our
corporations and our media are not going to encourage this behaviour –
it’s almost unpatriotic to not help our economy grow. But in this time
where we’re having to choose between economic growth and life on earth, I
know where I’ll be placing my vote.</div>
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<br />
Perhaps the most persuasive reason to live with less stuff is that we’re
heading in that direction anyway. It may be better to ride the crest of a
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Mdv_iAa5rnk">wave of change</a> than be sucked under it. </div>adrienne campbellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12328146492829739122noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1890197202528203849.post-38085231247545215102011-12-08T21:16:00.001+00:002011-12-08T21:18:48.066+00:00this land is your land<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiWMeWpbrBoaoTDRy-Bc_x_tEpKW9pl9rG8IwgafL0ewXNGqMNVwJQdTb-bzp2H9ixOyETXN-OYDXQY6_yaGYeaD5oUnsEd5tvckQRcKFdOgol_7dIg5WM0T7JT7N-Qa5RwWsVl4QeZPKf/s1600/north+st+visual.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiWMeWpbrBoaoTDRy-Bc_x_tEpKW9pl9rG8IwgafL0ewXNGqMNVwJQdTb-bzp2H9ixOyETXN-OYDXQY6_yaGYeaD5oUnsEd5tvckQRcKFdOgol_7dIg5WM0T7JT7N-Qa5RwWsVl4QeZPKf/s320/north+st+visual.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I heard on the grapevine that the North Street area of Lewes has been
sold to a foreign buyer (subject to contract). Its previous owner,
Anglo-Irish Bank, who had loaned a ridiculous sum to Charles Style of
Angel Properties to develop it, had repossessed it when Angel Properties
went into admin. The Anglo-Irish Bank, which was heavily over-extended,
in turn, went bust and was nationalised a couple of years ago so the
land was until recently being held by the Irish government.</span><br />
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News of its new ownership must come as a blow to the </span><a href="http://www.lewesclt.org/" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Lewes Community Land Trust</a><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">,
which had created a consortium of social developers including Guinness
Trust, to bid for the land. Their bid, however, was conditional and was
probably underbid by an unconditional offer, which the Irish Government
had been requiring.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">What upsets me is that someone can simply buy a piece of land that’s
essential to a town’s infrastructure, and then attempt to make money out
of it, with little reference to the people who live and work there,
this history, the culture, such as we saw with Charles Style’s bizarre
Phoenix Quarter – brilliantly subdued by Lewes Matters five years ago.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">At the moment, North Street is experiencing a small renaissance, with
individuals and small groups of people renting the warehouses to make
goods and run services. It’s probably quite a significant source of
self-employment and employment in the town, precisely because there are
no corporate logos to be seen, but under-valued as a result. The myth
still prevails in town planning that large employers are the biggest
source of revenue for a town, when the opposite is often true. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Is the 22-acre land being landbanked as part of a wealthy foreigner’s
property portfolio with the tenants in long-term uncertainty and unable
to invest in infrastructure? Or will Lewes residents once again be faced
with staving off someone else’s self-wealth-creating ‘vision for North
St’? We shall see. I look forward to a future where once again </span><a href="http://100-monkeys.blogspot.com/2007/04/power-of-lewes.html" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Lewes is run by and for local people</a><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">, looking after each other in the complex web of interconnectedness that creates real abundance and resilience. </span>adrienne campbellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12328146492829739122noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1890197202528203849.post-64747959730166163302011-12-01T14:56:00.001+00:002011-12-01T15:00:19.959+00:00well-fed neigbours<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZWy-5-hyQSMxVC3wpA4j4iUYJxKhcrBiq8TJlyOz4bMumJJ7rEx2UTkTM3OgIyTJggn6UmepH-0qp7bALmWrEpoK3YQ4XKBaoFoEre-mdEtV1Zc6F38vNwGHmoZRaaadAucUYhodBYnMb/s1600/rice.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="299" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZWy-5-hyQSMxVC3wpA4j4iUYJxKhcrBiq8TJlyOz4bMumJJ7rEx2UTkTM3OgIyTJggn6UmepH-0qp7bALmWrEpoK3YQ4XKBaoFoEre-mdEtV1Zc6F38vNwGHmoZRaaadAucUYhodBYnMb/s320/rice.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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I don’t want to scare you but I think it’s time we started to store
food. It looks as though we could be in for quite big changes in the
coming decade. We might be looking at the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Emergency">Long Emergency</a>
and we might be facing some sudden changes. These could come from one
or several areas: economic, energy and climate. Most pressing is the <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/8917077/Prepare-for-riots-in-euro-collapse-Foreign-Office-warns.html">recent news</a>
that British government is planning for the possibility of economic
collapse following the now-almost-inevitable collapse of the Euro. </div>
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<br />
When change happens, we’re all better off if we see it coming. There’s
nothing more conducive to panic and bad behaviour than being badly
prepared. You only need to visualise the Christmas rush at Tesco or the
empty shelves in the fuel strikes in 2000 to get my drift. Or, as the
article above describes, banks being unable to give out money and
destroying companies dependent on bank credit. </div>
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<br />
But you don’t need a national crisis to justify storing food. Friends of
mine who are going through financial troubles say that they feel so
much better knowing they have a few sacks of rice and pulses in their
store cupboard. And such things were totally normally in our
grandparents’ day before the just-in-time brittle corporate food chains
were established. </div>
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<br />
As I see it, there are three main ways to build food resilience. The
easiest is to simply build up your own stores. Aim for a couple of
months’ of your usual staples at any one time, then just get used to
rotating the food as you eat it. <br />
For a decade now we’ve been ordering our bulk food from <a href="http://www.infinityfoodswholesale.co.uk/catalogue/">Infinity Foods</a>,
a co-op that’s cheaper and more convenient than supermarkets. They
deliver free to Lewes on a Tuesday if you buy over £250-worth. We order
every four months, storing the 5kg bags of rice, oatmeal and pulses,
tins, oils and jars on top of our cupboards and in our basement.
There’s always a bit of space somewhere to store food. I know people who
group together to share orders and others who buy Infinity food from <a href="http://www.justtrade.org/">Just Trade</a>, a brilliant Lewes-based non-profit co-op that runs a drop-off at Lewes New School (next delivery 9 December). </div>
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<br />
Some people feel afraid at the mention of food storage, projecting out
that it’s about being selfish or fear-mongering. And though it’s true
that denial is a first cousin of fear, it’s best to get over that fear
and be practical. The more of us who are storing food, the better. As they
say, our best defence is a well-fed neighbour.</div>adrienne campbellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12328146492829739122noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1890197202528203849.post-72565911159153625802011-11-17T22:59:00.001+00:002011-11-17T23:48:43.227+00:00hook, line and sinker<br />
<div class="article" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<img height="240" src="http://www.vivalewes.com/image/v3_mackerel_00274.jpg" width="320" /></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I know I’m going to dream about fish tonight, after a day of mackerel fishing on the sea. It feels as though my kitchen is
rolling on the swell and the Easterlies that rocked our boat, </span><a href="http://www.oceanwarrior3.com/" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">the Ocean Warrior 3</a><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> all day.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
We set off from Newhaven harbour at eight in the morning on what is,
despite its name, a small chartered fishing boat. The skipper, Dave,
took us straight out to some wrecks where he located fish on the screen
in his cabin. Once anchored over a shoal, the mate, Steve, put on the
tackle and bait on to our rods and off we went.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
I’ve never caught a fish before but I had asked for a rod for my
birthday two years ago as I wanted to develop what is a crucial skill
for feeding ourselves. I’d been occasionally fishing off Seaford Head
since then. Even though I’d accepted that I might not catch a fish today
I was really excited when the first took my bait - a mackerel whose
doleful eyes stared at me as I pulled the hook out of its mouth and
threw it in the box to suffocate. Then another, and another. One of the
men on board, Ron, lent me his mackerel tackle, which consists of six
feathers and hooks that the mackerel seemed to love, because I
immediately caught six on one line, almost as soon as I threw the line
in the water.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
When I caught two dabs on one hook, Steve told me I was a ‘dab hand’ at
this. I was happy at that and also happy to move and roll with the boat.
We all caught many fish between us. After a while, though, I stopped,
though, as I felt that would easily do for my dinner, my friends and my
freezer. It almost seemed unfair to the fish for the fishing, and their
death, to be so easy. I felt grateful that these gorgeous grey-green
dappled mackerels and the white, soft bellied whiting were giving their
life for me. I said a little prayer as I put each one away and thanked
them as I was gutting them back at home.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
I now understand the lure of the sea, the magic of that suspended time
with the wind, the waves and the fish. I hope that dreamy state will
stay with me for some days yet.</span>adrienne campbellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12328146492829739122noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1890197202528203849.post-77043767839407520332011-11-10T16:03:00.001+00:002011-11-10T16:06:51.033+00:00blessed are the bread makers<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD_ouuumYCA7uybZx1NeQCMWN2UDlQ8IAikFzwOhuSyXpnPxCSKrb-AU2TIyZ4MPrS42FYkjBfbxBmE_O3VM4hv5chCXcroJVrevuN3CEIUaM7IvspqLnYYKVhiuZKhDqXM_5hvAmDcIdI/s1600/DSCF5220.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD_ouuumYCA7uybZx1NeQCMWN2UDlQ8IAikFzwOhuSyXpnPxCSKrb-AU2TIyZ4MPrS42FYkjBfbxBmE_O3VM4hv5chCXcroJVrevuN3CEIUaM7IvspqLnYYKVhiuZKhDqXM_5hvAmDcIdI/s320/DSCF5220.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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There’s a big discussion going on in our house and it’s all about bread. It started during <a href="http://100-monkeys.blogspot.com/2011/10/salt-of-sussex-earth.html" target="_blank">my week of being a locavore</a>,
eating within Sussex, when I discovered that the artisan bread sold in
Lewes is made from flour from the other side of England (plus at £3-ish a
loaf, it’s expensive). During that week I started making sourdough
bread from locally grown and milled flour. An authentic Lewes loaf.</div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<br />
But my children don’t like the sourdough. The crust is too hard and
they don’t like the slightly sour taste. So I got a toaster from
Freecycle, hoping that would entice them. But they’re still complaining
and are now asking for lunch money on a daily basis, not feeling like
eating the bread on offer. Despite being hardy in terms of my
own food choices, I do sympathise. So we’ll probably continue with both
artisan and sourdough, at least until I manage to make an acceptable
loaf.</div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<br />
There are now four households cooking sourdough on a regular basis in
my area of Lewes. We’ve started to wonder whether we should
investigate building a community oven, much like the new one at<a href="http://www.wowo.co.uk/" target="_blank"> Wowo campsite</a>,
which can hold 40 loaves at a time, maybe at Lewes New School? My
friend Grace and I went to the brilliant Baking Communities event at the
Town Hall last night. While munching on goodies spread on bread from
our four artisan bakers – Flint Own, Lighthouse, The Real Patisserie and
Infinity Bakers – we started to mull it over with a baker – Michael -
who also builds bread ovens and helps groups of people learn about
baking. I can’t wait to get started!<br /> </div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
Later in the evening Andrew Whitley, author of the bread bible, Bread
Matters, and Real Bread Campaign co-founder, described his vision of 25,000 bakeries (we currently have 3,000), supplying bread
through all sorts of supply chains across the country. Real bread is a
far cry from the industrially grown, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chorleywood_bread_process" target="_blank">Chorleywood process</a>-enhanced
bread that makes up most of our loaves in the UK. And it’s hard to see how
a real bread culture can take off when
so many people are still so wedded (or should I say addicted) to supermarkets.<br /> </div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
But as Rob Hopkins says in <a href="http://transitionculture.org/2011/11/10/some-reflections-on-a-day-at-occupy-lsx-at-st-pauls-cathedral/" target="_blank">this fascinating article about the connections between Transition and the Occupy movement</a>,
transition is about occupying our own lives, our own communities.
Reclaiming abundance, skills and relationships back from the corporate
sphere is something that we can each do in tiny steps. And bread is a
good place to start.</div>adrienne campbellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12328146492829739122noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1890197202528203849.post-9484773344827445802011-10-27T15:20:00.002+01:002011-11-17T23:49:08.380+00:00fuel for thought<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm_QFpyo_13V_9hH0oZaUdyU5wsNJWiUYP7oN2FhkjqGmkmasCC-_FSg5usjAvbpoLZLyAr89v4-_LK2Iu2xu74-20rR0o6_Vj5Lym6x0t6JXsQHyBmJxk5fdIeE_wrnBdEPWdLqa5G0h_/s1600/tar+sands.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm_QFpyo_13V_9hH0oZaUdyU5wsNJWiUYP7oN2FhkjqGmkmasCC-_FSg5usjAvbpoLZLyAr89v4-_LK2Iu2xu74-20rR0o6_Vj5Lym6x0t6JXsQHyBmJxk5fdIeE_wrnBdEPWdLqa5G0h_/s320/tar+sands.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="article" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
I’ve spent much of the last week researching Canadian tar sands and Norman Baker’s <a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/95a7c872-fd7f-11e0-b6d9-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1btbhh22V">alleged attempt to derail a flagship environmental fuel standard</a> being set by the EU. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athabasca_oil_sands">Canadian tar sands</a>
are the second largest oil reserve – after Saudi Arabia – in the world.
Allowing them to be burned will mean, according to James Hansen of
Nasa, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozmOQqRw0j4&feature=youtu.be">‘game over’ for the climate</a>.</div>
<div class="article" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<br />
The research has caused me to feel thoroughly emotional and it was in
that state that I went to see Norman in his Newhaven surgery last
Saturday to ask him what he was up to. He spent 20 minutes with a group
of us during which he confirmed the facts but was unable to explain his
stance in a way that I could accept, given the MEP briefing papers I’d
read. So I continued my research.</div>
<div class="article" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<br />
In December member nations will vote on an amendment to the Fuel
Quality Directive that aims to reduce European transport greenhouse gas
emissions and will effectively price tar sands, shale oil and other
‘dirty transport fuels’ out of Europe’s forecourts.</div>
<div class="article" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<br />
Norman, in his role as Transport Minister, initially supported the
amendment as it was in line with Britain’s commitment to CO2 emissions
reduction. However, intense and aggressive lobbying by the Canadian
government and energy companies, as shown in this <a href="http://www.no-tar-sands.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/FOEE_Report_Tar_Sands_Lobby_Final_July82011.pdf">comprehensive Friends of the Earth report</a>, has caused the government to backtrack. Now Norman is now not only <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/pollution-fears-as-uk-blocks-european-ban-on-fuel-from-tar-sands-2291598.html">blocking this important initiative</a>
but has also stated he is lobbying his equivalent Ministers of
Transport across Europe in a hope to quash the vote in December. </div>
<div class="article" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<br />
Friends of the Earth and the Cooperative say that Norman’s volte face
coincides with a visit by David Cameron to Canada, where our PM opened
Canada’s fourth Trade Consulate in the offices of Suncor Energy.
Suncor’s <a href="http://www.suncor.com/en/about/242.aspx">website</a>
claims it was the first company to develop the tar sands (they call it
oil sands). Norman told me when we met that he’s had no direct contact
with David Cameron or the Canadian government on this issue. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBcifzHcycz4QduDnkLwaNZMKPOMcCUtgUcaG_Ivzg2CwY086LslS_KbiYUcDMEv3y3eGvjuuN5u-bddIbQojjFfdORdvLR028GC1pGFOrth2DXtpioSZS2E9UfFDZR5irSl-Xq5yViWsl/s1600/tar+sands2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBcifzHcycz4QduDnkLwaNZMKPOMcCUtgUcaG_Ivzg2CwY086LslS_KbiYUcDMEv3y3eGvjuuN5u-bddIbQojjFfdORdvLR028GC1pGFOrth2DXtpioSZS2E9UfFDZR5irSl-Xq5yViWsl/s1600/tar+sands2.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="article" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<br />
Although the amendment is supported by all the Lib Dem European MPs
and many others, both Norman and the Canadian energy company lobbyists
say it is discriminatory. It doesn’t include other kinds of fossil fuel
which, because of the energy, pollutants and environmental ravage
required to get them to the pump, are deemed to be more greenhouse gas
intensive. Norman’s department instead proposes a new measurement
methodology. <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/9907088">The Cooperative and other NGOs say</a>
that this ‘discrimination’ tactic is untrue: other kinds of heavy fuels
such as shale oil <i>are</i> already included and more can be included as
research is finalized. They say this new methodology proposal is a
‘wrecking’ tactic that could set the initiative back years. </div>
<div class="article" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<br />
I think part of my strong emotional response to this has been because
I’ve fully realized that we’re not going to make a calm transition to
renewable energy now that we have reached peak oil. Instead, there is a
powerful, dirty lobby of energy corporations and<a href="http://fossil.energy.gov/programs/reserves/npr/npr_oil_shale_program.html"> government</a>
which, now that unconventional sources of energy are now economically
viable, is gearing up for a race to the bottom in the name of energy
security. Tar sands, gas shale through fracking, underground coal
gasification: there is plentiful dirty fuel - Extreme Energy as some are
now calling it - out there that will kill our climate many times over.
We need to all wake up to this issue, just as we are waking up to the
role of the bankers in wrecking our economy.</div>
<div class="article" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<br />
<a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/osbornes-antigreen-agenda-splits-coalition-2375993.html">The front page of yesterday’s Independent</a>
wrote of a Cabinet split as to whether to prioritise economic recovery
or the environment. And while I realise that Norman’s under enormous
pressure to toe the party line, I know he’s a man of conscience and
trust that he will, ultimately, do the right thing.</div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="article" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="article" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<i>Photo courtesy of the Pembina Institute. More <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/pembina/collections/72157608560695390/" target="_blank">here</a>. </i></div>adrienne campbellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12328146492829739122noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1890197202528203849.post-2145335049931226382011-10-13T15:32:00.002+01:002011-11-10T16:08:21.705+00:00oats and beans and barley grow<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR3KOJf0N5GAPIccDo64N6b-0x8zd771TNxFBaEu7hNxZn9d6CYEExQFfOUci-qGmLYcmFqod_sR3VfgDms_1FX4U425y5yQ4XOFdV2WkOceW1a842hh5iTsrNJup36kI5gLY_7GVHwrJI/s1600/wheat+fields.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR3KOJf0N5GAPIccDo64N6b-0x8zd771TNxFBaEu7hNxZn9d6CYEExQFfOUci-qGmLYcmFqod_sR3VfgDms_1FX4U425y5yQ4XOFdV2WkOceW1a842hh5iTsrNJup36kI5gLY_7GVHwrJI/s320/wheat+fields.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
It’s fascinating to see what happens when you step out of your comfort
zone. Eating locally from within the borders of Sussex has thrown up all
manner of experiences. My kitchen has turned into a
laboratory as I incubate new skills, literally new cultures. Sourdough
bread and cider are two, and I made my own salt from the sea.</div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<br />
It’s clear that we can eat a healthy, mixed diet from within the
borders of Sussex. Meat and dairy abound, as well as vegetables of all
kinds both from the fertile greensand soil of the Downs and the
glasshouses of Fletching and beyond. Boathouse Farm has its own potato
fields, and pumpkins grow well in a good year. Apples and other fruit of
course are traditional from around here. Sussex is covered with wheat
fields and there are farmers who grow grains and pulses such as barley,
oats and field beans for their animals, so the skills and equipment for
growing all our food needs are there, in the heads and hands of Sussex
farmers.</div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<br />
But. And it’s a big one. Our infrastructure for bringing this food
from field to fork is woefully lacking. As I wrote last week, wonderful
Plumpton Mill is only one of three flour mills left in Sussex, with a
capacity of 50 kilos of flour an hour. Abattoirs have been closed in the
last two decades by red tape, so meat is harder to manage at a small
scale. Smaller farms, providing dairy, meat and veg, close through lack
of customers. </div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
The biggest barrier of all is in our minds: the way we
source our food. People have become utterly dependent for feeding on big
daddy supermarkets, with their grotesque money-based way of pushing
farmers, nature and all the living beings that nourish us to their
limits. And sorry, but Waitrose is only better by a small degree than
any other supermarket; there’s no real ethical refuge there behind the
tasteful marketing.<br />
</div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
I find myself raging about this, about the stupidity of people all
around me who just want to go on with the dream – or is it a nightmare –
of convenient industrial food and who at our collective peril neglect
the farmers and the shop keepers, the wonderful land, sea, food and
drink around us that are our true ecosystem, our resilience and our real
sustenance.<br />
<i><br /> Picture by Erma Shutter</i></div>adrienne campbellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12328146492829739122noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1890197202528203849.post-68748370246066769632011-10-06T15:35:00.002+01:002011-10-06T15:35:40.177+01:00salt of the (sussex) earth<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje_seiuRq8XBQ-cz5cJbfLjT0jbXwhLqe1xVGyKTmMv3IbgLfwb95c2XVMkPE-HDpgDSA76UN7IM8NCUO2ejtI19npRE-z9DwOfZnS8ovbqfOKPP3qq0QhAVDOmTED5Ej5BhXsMwiKAG-G/s1600/plumpton+mill.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje_seiuRq8XBQ-cz5cJbfLjT0jbXwhLqe1xVGyKTmMv3IbgLfwb95c2XVMkPE-HDpgDSA76UN7IM8NCUO2ejtI19npRE-z9DwOfZnS8ovbqfOKPP3qq0QhAVDOmTED5Ej5BhXsMwiKAG-G/s320/plumpton+mill.jpg" width="239" /></a></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
It’s day six of the Lewes locavore diet. Always one to jump in the deep
end I decided to see if I could eat a normal diet just from Sussex.
Since then, only food and drink from Sussex have passed my lips. I have
to admit, it’s been tough. I have risen to the challenge and made my own
salt; I’m starting to like its bitter taste. I miss pepper. And I’m
getting physical withdrawal symptoms (headaches, aching joints) from the
green tea I thought was so healthy. I can’t make salad dressings
without lemons or vinegar, which as far as I can tell, is not produced
in Sussex. And I simply can’t find anywhere that grows oats, which makes
life rather sad, without oatcakes, porridge, muesli etc. Without
imported rice and pulses, my mainly vegetarian diet has become more
animal-protein based, so, lots of eggs.</div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<br />
When you start to break down the food you eat, you start to realize
how much we depend on imported food and also preserved food, and
unconsciously become part of the corporate food chain, which really
doesn’t exist to feed people as much as to make money.</div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<br />
I managed to track down Sussex flour, though, from Plumpton Mill - restored by
its owners; it was cited in the Domesday Book a thousand years ago. This
water mill is a wonder to behold, one of only three now milling flour
in East Sussex. It can produce 50 kilos of flour an hour; I strongly
encourage people to buy this lovely flour, whose wheat is biodynamically
grown at Plaw Hatch near Forest Row. Appallingly, though, despite half of Sussex seeminlgy growing wheat, it's all part of the industrial food machine: Plaw Hatch, I believe, is the only farm to grow wheat for local consumption. </div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
To complete the local cycle, I got
some sourdough starter from my friend Grace and have made two handsome
loaves of sourdough – it’s so easy. As I write I’m mentally peppering
this with exclamation marks. I suppose what’s emerging from this diet is
that despite the hardships, I’m also finding that eating from my
terrain is terrifically exciting.</div>
adrienne campbellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12328146492829739122noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1890197202528203849.post-1999101958431869152011-10-04T16:33:00.003+01:002011-10-04T16:33:45.784+01:00going locavore<br />
<div class="article" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<img height="267" src="http://www.vivalewes.com/image/v3_100_00267.jpg" width="400" /></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I’ve decided to go Locavore. Just dipping my toe into
the water, for the 10 days of Lewes’s Octoberfeast, starting tomorrow.
This means sourcing all my food and drink from my East Sussex terrain.</span><br style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
Most of my diet is already based on the animals and vegetables that grow
plentifully round here. Local farm shops provide lamb reared on the
South Downs, biodynamic eggs, organic veggies from my allotment and
several local farms, Golden Cross goats cheeses, and I can get delicious
unpasteurised milk and even Sussex Downs butter in paper wrapping from
the Lewes Friday market.</span><br />
<br style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
Starch-wise I’ve ordered a sack of Boathouse potatoes from the Ashurst
veg box and I’m going to drop in on Plumpton Mill later today as I hear
they mill wheat and rye grown by Plumpton College. Interestingly, a lot
of the real bread we eat locally is made from wheat from Shipton Mill in
the west country. I’m finding it much harder to source oats, which we
eat daily in porridge, muesli and oatcakes. Dried beans, too are almost
non-existant in Sussex; in the longer term that would affect the diet of
the vegetarians and even more so the vegans in our family. I’m not sure
one could be a vegan locavore in Sussex.</span><br style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">In terms of drink, there are several local wines, I hear, though Harveys
sadly won’t be included, as the malt and most of the hops come from out
of the region. I drink green tea, and will have to give that up in
favour of the herb teas I’ve been collecting this summer. That’s
probably my only real sacrifice.</span><br style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
As far as condiments grow, I’ll sadly have to do without pepper. Which
would be hard long term. For now there’s horseradish ready to harvest
from my allotment, dried herbs and chilis I got at last weekend’s great
ChiliFest in Southease – Adrian there grows dozens of varieties in his
unheated greenhouse.</span><br style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The one and only thing I could not do without, even for a week, is salt.
I’ve researched the matter and realised that there is no place in
Sussex that creates its own salt. So I set off on yesterday’s Indian
summer day to Bishopstone to collect 10 litres of sea water.</span><br style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I strained the murky water through three layers of muslin before
setting it on to boil on a charcoal/wood burning stove set up outside my
back door. After about five hours, the salty water was reduced right
down and started to gloop and spit. I transferred it to a shallow bowl,
where it’s sitting in the sun, turning into salt. It’s a bit grey, and
strangely bitter. But it’s about a cup’s worth, plenty for my 10 days as
a locavore.</span>adrienne campbellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12328146492829739122noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1890197202528203849.post-14733517490491026782011-09-15T22:53:00.002+01:002011-09-22T09:32:25.534+01:00life preserving<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRfgv6TyvUi7ry3gwtLWra5_PnPpIKiR1LH4kRHUlVhdAREo8Bmu47xWx2dy0M4RSfqJ9VXUJBT9glvcabWiaqpyCrp0gGQbCZejhsbuj9RWAHBXnwRXozyrvIFi-4xPg9HGXlYdbbPBxW/s1600/life+preserving.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRfgv6TyvUi7ry3gwtLWra5_PnPpIKiR1LH4kRHUlVhdAREo8Bmu47xWx2dy0M4RSfqJ9VXUJBT9glvcabWiaqpyCrp0gGQbCZejhsbuj9RWAHBXnwRXozyrvIFi-4xPg9HGXlYdbbPBxW/s1600/life+preserving.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRfgv6TyvUi7ry3gwtLWra5_PnPpIKiR1LH4kRHUlVhdAREo8Bmu47xWx2dy0M4RSfqJ9VXUJBT9glvcabWiaqpyCrp0gGQbCZejhsbuj9RWAHBXnwRXozyrvIFi-4xPg9HGXlYdbbPBxW/s320/life+preserving.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="article" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
Boy, I’ve been working hard! I’m spending all my
spare moments storing food for the winter. All the apples, pears, plums
and quinces from the allotment, the runner beans, courgettes, tomatoes,
onions, beetroots, and other people’s windfalls too, as well as foraged
berries, are being wrapped, chopped, boiled, pickled, jammed, brewed,
frozen and stored away for the winter months. Why? Perhaps because it’s
been an abundant harvest, perhaps because I’ve reached a new level of
competence/obsession. It’s extreme.</div>
<div class="article" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<br />
As I spend yet another evening with my face over splattering vats of
vinegar, I often ask myself whether it’s worth it. I can pop down to the
shops and buy this stuff, for not much more than it costs me.
Certainly, if you build in my time, it’s not worth it at all. So what’s
it about? Part of me wants to develop skills that I feel we’re going to
need some time soon. Part of me is almost invoking the spirit of my
pre-supermarket forebears, who had to do this to alleviate winter food
boredom, and I can also feel their joy and gratitude for the food that sustains our lives. </div>
<div class="article" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="article" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
But mainly, increasingly, I want to preserve food for its own
sake. As we live more and more from the food I grow on the allotment I
can feel in advance the taste of sunshine in the autumn raspberries
taken from the freezer in February. I can taste the summer echo in my
tomato pickle eaten with a root stew in March. The damson jam will be
brilliant on hot toast on a cold day. And of course some of it will go
as presents.</div>
<div class="article" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<br />
Really, I wouldn’t have it any other way. Next year I’ll just have to
make sure I set aside time in September to focus on preserving, just as I
prioritized vegetable growing in March and April this year and bees in
May and June. <br />
Such deep pleasure, even just in anticipation! Is it possible that by
simplifying we are inviting more abundance and happiness? It’s all a
great mystery.</div>
<div class="article" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="article" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Pic by MG Montoya</span></i></div>
adrienne campbellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12328146492829739122noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1890197202528203849.post-33309853878526719072011-09-06T08:23:00.000+01:002011-09-06T08:23:04.910+01:00finishing touches<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjNdz58iYj1YY5LC7fdZroY4Nbb9WTWJP-lMMvT13NiFLyldTjFELNAMW6nI-J_q3O4thhF4LFPie2jbrgfAO2YoYDSF4bky-yYl2m8bhupqEjEFaTUsyQTC3b3QgI8BND3oeg6xFIf6_z/s1600/finishing+touches.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjNdz58iYj1YY5LC7fdZroY4Nbb9WTWJP-lMMvT13NiFLyldTjFELNAMW6nI-J_q3O4thhF4LFPie2jbrgfAO2YoYDSF4bky-yYl2m8bhupqEjEFaTUsyQTC3b3QgI8BND3oeg6xFIf6_z/s320/finishing+touches.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
I’m just putting the finishing touches to my permaculture diploma,
which I’m presenting for accreditation this Sunday. It’s the
culmination of nearly five years of work, during which I was designing
and creating resilient systems in response to climate change and peak
oil. When I took the introduction to permaculture course about 25 years
ago, followed a few years later by a two week design course, it
revolutionised me. Here was a holistic, systemic approach to life that
had a brilliant ethos at its core: earth care, people care, fare share.
That ethic applies even more today when the problems identified then
are now threatening life on earth.</div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<br />
Five years ago, when I left Lewes New School, which I’d co-founded, I
wanted to devote myself as a permaculturalist to the urgent issues of
the day and decided to take on this self-managed learning course, which
includes meeting with tutors and fellow designers. In five years I’ve
helped establish Transition Town Lewes, and have been deeply involved in
several of its projects, including the Lewes Pound and communications.
In that time I’ve also co-started a community car club, made our house
more energy resilient and also a generator of both heat and
electricity. I’ve established several growing places, including my
allotment, woodland and small forest garden near our house. I’ve become
a natural beekeeper. And I’ve written about all this for Viva Lewes
online. It’s been fun.</div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<br />
I’ve been able to focus on this work mainly without pay by reducing our
costs – we buy very little stuff any more – to the point that we can live
on one income. For me, whether I’m paid or not, recognised or not,
successful or not, it’s my path. I’m deeply grateful for permaculture
as a practical way of making sense of life.</div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<br />
Three people are accrediting in Lewes and two in Worthing this weekend –
all leaders who are helping design resilient communities. You are
welcome to attend. 2 – 5.30pm this Sunday 4 September at Lewes New
School. You can read my 10-module diploma <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/adriennekcampbell/home">here</a>.</div>
adrienne campbellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12328146492829739122noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1890197202528203849.post-28508761526536539392011-08-24T21:12:00.002+01:002011-08-24T21:12:34.026+01:00nature is my cathedral<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0SgS7zN4ZkRBNJU2CZzCaUCCpbO2XLO8uebo0sQ563gz84FO60icmOpg0jcISipEIjegNbGEZoDBNo-SpIxLN3w6IevT6tJ0Tmaz-imInsIVzDj55gBZ03_mrXSfXR-HvcOICTmRDghy_/s1600/cathedral.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0SgS7zN4ZkRBNJU2CZzCaUCCpbO2XLO8uebo0sQ563gz84FO60icmOpg0jcISipEIjegNbGEZoDBNo-SpIxLN3w6IevT6tJ0Tmaz-imInsIVzDj55gBZ03_mrXSfXR-HvcOICTmRDghy_/s320/cathedral.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
I’ve been on a quest all year for silence, the natural kind. I found it
on midsummer night on Mount Caburn, in a bivvy bag surrounded by rain
and wind and a host of fireflies. I found it on the Isle of Wight in a
hotel on the beach, waking up to the sound of waves and sea. Then I had a
whole glorious week of it in a <a href="http://www.ecofinca.co.uk/">secluded, off grid, yurt</a>
in the foothills of the Spanish Pyrenees, with only my family and
cicadas for company. We swam in the mountain rivers, we bathed in the
intense heat, showered with water pumped up from the spring and cooked
together in a simple outdoor kitchen overlooking a valley. Graus, the
nearest town had only Spanish people in it; the sound of Spanish people
chatting over a beer in the square in the coolness of the early
evening is somewhat like a natural sound and it rang in my ears for
some days. We visited hillside towns that had been abandoned, and some
that had been squatted or reoccupied by young people starting a life on
the land.</div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<br />
It was a little shocking to return to Barcelona to catch the wonderful and inexpensive overnight <a href="http://www.seat61.com/Spain.htm#Barcelona%20trainhotel%20like">train hotel</a> back to Paris. So many tourists visiting the Gaudi places, his work is impressive, particularly the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagrada_Fam%C3%ADlia">Sagrada Familia</a>
with its architecture and decorations inspired by nature. But,
personally, nature herself, especially wild nature, is my cathedral. </div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
I’m
off to <a href="http://sunrise-offgrid.co.uk/">Sunrise Off Grid</a>
festival in a mo, where I will be offering a workshop on low-carbon
food storage and preservation in the ‘Off-Grid College’ - a 13
module series of presentations and talks looking at various aspects of
sustainable, locally resilient, low impact, off-grid living.</div>
adrienne campbellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12328146492829739122noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1890197202528203849.post-14376209219917175462011-07-22T15:32:00.001+01:002011-07-22T15:32:44.777+01:00nutritious soup<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2XbfXAsUIzv5V65CkZakORnWn6yaQEzCeAkt0vNvwPp2i9weo7FBuDAEJDVGDBu0_1X0A8HzIVeapbjzPhLELgKBI6BrzYQghv-bLCrYnUDz0eoSLTqZnoy9H2HFZpJiGzqPAGcSR4ivp/s1600/butterfly_Small-bordered-Fritillary-b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2XbfXAsUIzv5V65CkZakORnWn6yaQEzCeAkt0vNvwPp2i9weo7FBuDAEJDVGDBu0_1X0A8HzIVeapbjzPhLELgKBI6BrzYQghv-bLCrYnUDz0eoSLTqZnoy9H2HFZpJiGzqPAGcSR4ivp/s1600/butterfly_Small-bordered-Fritillary-b.jpg" /></a>I was reading a permaculture manual last night in which the author
describes needing to put some time and effort (and muck) into a new food
garden before things went ‘pop’. I laughed as I realized that this
describes what has just happened in the forest garden that takes up a
third of my allotment. In a permaculture design you’re advised to put
80% of the work into the design and initial structure so that you only
need to put in 20% of your energy into maintaining it – unlike most
systems which are the opposite. After two and a half years (and some
before that by Chloe and Tilo, the previous owners of the allotment) of
mulching, feeding, planting and weeding, I now have a garden that is
more of a steady state, where weeding will become reduced as the
perennial clovers and self sowing bee-attracting understory of
phaecelia, annual clovers, borage and poached egg plant have settled in.</div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<br />
That ‘pop’ view of systems reminds me of my friend Mike Grenville’s
talk to Transition Town Lewes last week. Change doesn’t happen slowly,
incrementally along a timeline, he told us. Rather, the pressure to
change builds up when an old system resists change. The more it resists,
the more the pressure builds up, until it can’t resist any longer and
it inevitably ‘pops’ or flips into a new state, with a period of
turbulence in between. So Transition, he said, is totally different to
the old environmental model of trying to persuade more and more people
to change. That doesn’t work. Most people don’t want to change until
they are forced to. Transition Towns are about engaging people, when
they want to, to help each other create resilience in their own
communities: preparing for the pop, so to speak.</div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<br />
He told us a story that’s apt for this time of sudden and unexpected
change: The Hungry Caterpillar. When a caterpillar is nearing its
transformation, it begins to consume ravenously (sounds familiar?) It
becomes bloated, shedding its skin many times and, unable to move,
attaches itself onto a branch, forming a chrysalis. Within the
chrysalis, cells which biologists call ‘imaginal cells’ begin to appear.
These are completely different to caterpillar cells. At first the
caterpillar perceives these new cells as foreign and attacks them. But
the imaginal cells increase, bonding and clumping, until the
caterpillar’s immune system is overwhelmed. The caterpillar’s body then
becomes a nutritious soup for the growth of the new butterfly.</div>
adrienne campbellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12328146492829739122noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1890197202528203849.post-72707595813062827482011-07-14T15:33:00.007+01:002011-07-18T13:49:43.580+01:00trouble in store<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6jr-yQ2mG7gi8YZNTnoIB8pdDWURSWLyPw9qeI-o4Cp6_zR_WxnAnzKvpnrb56U5mbsYE4JiMVHhzYugW9qno9PnS-LRoU_YjSQR96irEccjeJyAe0O1-M-WhfS93qbTzNZnKyFl0ulUr/s1600/pumpkin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="254" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6jr-yQ2mG7gi8YZNTnoIB8pdDWURSWLyPw9qeI-o4Cp6_zR_WxnAnzKvpnrb56U5mbsYE4JiMVHhzYugW9qno9PnS-LRoU_YjSQR96irEccjeJyAe0O1-M-WhfS93qbTzNZnKyFl0ulUr/s320/pumpkin.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
I’ve started to store food. I feel slightly embarrassed to admit this,
because it’s not normal behaviour. Last year our family waterproofed our under-street coal hole, turning it into a dry, cool store for both fresh and dry food. In the autumn I
stored 12 squashes from the six plants on my allotment. This year I’m
growing 15 squash plants for the winter store: Uchiki Kuri, Potimarron, Turk’s Turban,
Butternut, Crown Prince. They’re as exotic to eat as they sound, making
golden, warming, nutty soups and pies all winter. </div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<br />
But why, when you can simply feed your family for fifty quid from the supermarket? Because big change is ahead andThe <a href="http://transitionculture.org/2011/07/07/resilient-to-what-a-fascinating-new-look-at-risk/">World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Assessment</a>
shows that the greatest risks facing us in the coming decade are
climate change, ‘extreme energy price volatility’ and fiscal crises. Some say that <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/jul/17/food-prices-rise-commodities">high food prices are here to stay</a>.
I’m not saying that we’re going to go hungry in the south east of
England, but I do want to live in a world where responsibility for
feeding ourselves doesn’t lie with multinationals; I want to get more
food skills under my belt; and as food prices rise and our income is
vulnerable, we might just be happy to have some hearty food to hand.</div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<br />
So, it’s time to get resilient, no matter that the politicians,
corporations and popular media would prefer us to be shopping. Over
recent months I’ve deliberately created more time for growing food and
learning how to preserve it. I’m growing most of our vegetables for
about ten months of the year from my allotment (apart from potatoes,
onions and carrots, which can be grown in fields and stored in sacks in my
basement). Now, as summer brings abundance, I spend some time
each day growing, harvesting, drying, pickling, fermenting, freezing
and storing.</div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<br />
And I’m about to take another step: next time I put in my bulk order with <a href="http://www.infinityfoodswholesale.co.uk/catalogue/">Infinity Foods</a>,
instead of a five kilo bag, I’m going to order a whole sack each of
rice (25kg for £28), chick peas (£35) and lentils (£36) – all from
Europe - and I’m going to store them in our food store. I know that I’m
only as resilient as my neighbours are, and I'm not planning on defending my stash. Maybe I’m mad, or a decade ahead of my time; maybe
in ten years our town will have a huge food store under the castle. Who knows. But
my gut is telling me to do this and it feels really good.</div>
adrienne campbellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12328146492829739122noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1890197202528203849.post-23311558188129024352011-07-07T16:18:00.005+01:002011-07-14T15:35:53.035+01:00this is evolution<span id="goog_1911506658"></span><span id="goog_1911506659"></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZnKBefKQa8T7Xj60RYNpljOHiPsbS9JZ_ZMDvuMjs7UrjnYbkTYffItuGBuCBlrE1cM7cH2Vov8wmH2ZXEHQakw858TDIS3m4PzxwYS5jkpPfm1B_ZAQi7vBVcqgMcVmC4M-VPYSKaCYe/s1600/earth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZnKBefKQa8T7Xj60RYNpljOHiPsbS9JZ_ZMDvuMjs7UrjnYbkTYffItuGBuCBlrE1cM7cH2Vov8wmH2ZXEHQakw858TDIS3m4PzxwYS5jkpPfm1B_ZAQi7vBVcqgMcVmC4M-VPYSKaCYe/s1600/earth.jpg" /></a></div>
There’s talk about a change of consciousness ahead that will help us humans move to a new way of living. It seems popular to imagine that a ‘rapture’ type of experience will happen on 21 December 2012 and until then we can talk and read about it and speculate, in fear, hope, whatever. There’s a whole new age industry focusing on these transcendent ideas, and I view this as another form of escapism and denial of the real issues facing us. </div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
But what if a change of consciousness is already happening? I was having tea with my friend Jemma recently and she told me about <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/sally-williams/8592326/How-Pakistans-farmers-are-cleaning-up-cotton.html">a recent article</a> stating that Ikea’s 2008 cotton harvest in Pakistan used the equivalent of the drinking water of Sweden over 176 years. Such shocking information had led her to question her use of cheap cotton products, just as watching Food Inc had led to her changing her diet to one that’s more local and healthy. Yet, she said, many of her friends had the same information but didn’t choose to do anything about it, often saying that one person couldn’t make a difference. Maybe Jemma's consciousness is changing. She reads information and she takes personal responsibility by acting on it. </div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
It’s not a high-faluting spiritual thing, this, but it’s based on common sense, ethical imperatives and a feeling for the collective, the whole. Perhaps we are moving to a more global, tribal mind, where it’s widely unacceptable to live in <a href="http://www.energybulletin.net/stories/2011-06-06/deep-green-why-de-growthhttp:/www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7cylfQtkDg&feature=related">a world</a> where 15% of the world’s population use 85% of the world’s resources, and where we see every living being on this planet as an Earthling. </div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
Although it can be isolating and even confusing at this time to be undergoing the consciousness shift to a global mindset, it also helps to make sense of what’s happening. As this Hopi elder says in <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7cylfQtkDg&feature=related">this short video</a>, ‘America is dying from within because they forgot the instructions for how to live on earth. It’s not negative to know there will be great changes. This is evolution.’</div>
adrienne campbellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12328146492829739122noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1890197202528203849.post-41634514609498427162011-06-30T15:31:00.000+01:002011-06-30T15:31:19.579+01:00queen of the sun<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1MENBorSFMPmasIrlNnhmugRLh3eY-1HWjl1wpvjOtOa-0r77svCSmY2g1NIEmjIq12UJcb6EXCYQd7mIqarAa1cMNk2PJhQRH57O7wgggQuz8KQFoC8-AkVQuGYDd34OCl4yjPuc0qLz/s1600/abeille-deesse-minoenne-or-+single.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1MENBorSFMPmasIrlNnhmugRLh3eY-1HWjl1wpvjOtOa-0r77svCSmY2g1NIEmjIq12UJcb6EXCYQd7mIqarAa1cMNk2PJhQRH57O7wgggQuz8KQFoC8-AkVQuGYDd34OCl4yjPuc0qLz/s1600/abeille-deesse-minoenne-or-+single.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">We’re coming to the end of the lime blossom nectar flow, with the trees casting their heady scent across Lewes. With friends I’ve been gathering the flowers to dry for my winter linden teas – great for calming nerves and for heading off colds. Part of the heavenly experience of harvesting the blossoms is the intense sound of the bees that cover the trees during the short nectar flow. Lime blossom is a major food source for honeybees during a hungry gap between the spring spurt of blossom and the long-flowering brambles and ivy that they forage for winter stores. </div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
It’s great to connect with all the bees at this time of year – their intensity seems to match the height of the sun. I can and do sit for hours watching the entrance to the beehives I keep in Lewes. Unless the weather is making them agitated, they let me sit nearby because as a natural beekeeper I don’t interfere with them – basically we see the hive as their home, as though a body – to be left undisturbed. And once a year, if there’s enough, we might take a few combs of honey, for medicine. </div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
I’m delighted that the Linklater Pavilion is promoting the marvel of the honeybee and to see so many visitors at their recent Bee the Buzz event. But why are the bees being kept in such an artificial ‘observation hive’ with their frames laid out in two dimensions and with sugar syrup being permanently fed to them? There are more indignities I won’t go on about, because I feel strong feelings of outrage, despair and shame when I think about that hive. Surely a centre of ecology should be modelling the natural, holistic approach at all times? There are other ways of observing bees that don’t involve sacrificing them to the cold glamour of science.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
In a lovely film I are hoping to show in the autumn, <a href="http://www.queenofthesun.com/about/trailer/">Queen of the Sun</a>, biodynamic beekeepers point out that we owe our very lives to the honeybees, as they pollinate most of our food. Most ancient cultures saw bees as sacred beings, not just for the work they do for us but because, as anyone who has encountered bees on the bees’ own terms will know: they have so much to teach us.</div>adrienne campbellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12328146492829739122noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1890197202528203849.post-62273904150471459112011-06-02T18:21:00.001+01:002011-06-06T09:33:55.612+01:00be not afraid<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5-gKqm3Wi8jpylSf72PbkwEFlIHiRnOhUqO3xUeAMINosgsYBNetgbhN8dttdbJyBQDKt8EzwL44YZPdkUtjnerx3B4krDzmzuWhtvjmmkp7I8su7uKQJPYELjM6GxCpCLWo8l8qRLST3/s1600/st+johns.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5-gKqm3Wi8jpylSf72PbkwEFlIHiRnOhUqO3xUeAMINosgsYBNetgbhN8dttdbJyBQDKt8EzwL44YZPdkUtjnerx3B4krDzmzuWhtvjmmkp7I8su7uKQJPYELjM6GxCpCLWo8l8qRLST3/s320/st+johns.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Over in St John's Sub Castro’s churchyard a little area of wild is regrowing, protected from strimming. It’s where I keep my honeybees. All around them grow wild grasses, flowers and weeds, tall and lush despite the lack of rain for two months, where many other beings live: small insects, birds and mammals. At the other end of the churchyard, only daisies and lawn-level grass are allowed to grow. The few trees remaining when a dense copse was thinned a couple of years ago have now died, the soil around them dried out from the lack of shade, their leafless branches bearing witness to an act of pointless interference. </div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
Alan Watts once wrote: ‘You didn’t come into this world. You came out of it, like a wave from the ocean. You are not a stranger here.’ This terrain, my body, is not only interconnected with but <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dwsIV_mA_s&feature=player_embedded">continuous with all other beings</a>. The Lakota native Americans acknowledge this in their prayer Mitakuye Oyasin - ‘all our relations’.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
I’m still struggling with feelings of outrage and grief from the dire news this week, including the announcement that the world emitted more CO2 last year than ever before. Being alive today is a challenge to my sanity and my physical health, and I know I’m not alone. Sometimes I just need to return to the wild places around Lewes, such as the rewilding church yard over the road.<br />
<br />
As Wendell Berry writes in The Peace of Wild Things</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
‘When despair for the world grows in me</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">and I wake in the night at the least sound</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I go and lie down where the wood drake</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. </div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I come into the peace of wild things</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">who do not tax their lives with forethought</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">of grief. I come into the presence of still water.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">And I feel above me the day-blind stars</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">waiting with their light. For a time</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.’</div>adrienne campbellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12328146492829739122noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1890197202528203849.post-45302392953912168712011-05-26T21:47:00.000+01:002011-05-26T21:47:20.379+01:00swarm catchers<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbgZLi2dubh2sQyZ0SBr-QhAE1E1HfbHbsCcY1C0xhFQClW5p77eCGpm-8o3WcUbgRtwE1WZlKJXnSVQOuJ90Gc5FpzB_C0jH6Ju0NmpZgIeWO1PbAwapO3wgHs6wlbCOFcEK3rPem3V0C/s1600/swarm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbgZLi2dubh2sQyZ0SBr-QhAE1E1HfbHbsCcY1C0xhFQClW5p77eCGpm-8o3WcUbgRtwE1WZlKJXnSVQOuJ90Gc5FpzB_C0jH6Ju0NmpZgIeWO1PbAwapO3wgHs6wlbCOFcEK3rPem3V0C/s320/swarm.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Last Saturday I was working on my allotment, near my bees, and heard a loud hum. I looked up and saw a swarm of bees that quickly moved over my head towards the woods beneath Landport Bottom. I jumped on my bike and tried to follow them but they were too fast and disappeared quickly towards their destination. They were not my bees but from another colony, excitedly and purposefully creating new life.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
The air is warm, the nectar flow is on and swarming season is upon us again. Perhaps because of the decline of the honeybee, we now have over a dozen new <a href="http://www.naturalbeekeepingtrust.org/">natural beekeepers</a> in the Lewes area. They keep their hives, often home made, in gardens, allotments and on roofs. Seeing themselves as ‘bee guardians’ rather than ‘honey farmers', they work on a very different basis to conventional beekeepers. They leave most of the honey for the bees to overwinter on, they try not to open up the hive without good reason – especially taking care not to disturb the brood chamber - and allow their bees to swarm as a natural part of the cycle. As a result, swarming is on the increase, thanks to natural beekeeping, as well as from the increasing number of wild bee colonies in Lewes trees, chimneys and eaves. So swarming in May and June will become a more common occurrence. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
There’s fear and projections attached to swarming bees but really they are almost always docile. For example, last year I captured with my bare hands a perfect swarm hanging low from a small tree on Talbot Terrace; the children loved watching me do that; it was a community event. Swarming is abundance itself, the honeybees’ natural way to reproduce and break disease cycles. So if you see or even hear about a swarm of bees, stop to celebrate and marvel at them, and note where they land. Then ring one of Lewes’s swarmcatchers, who will transfer the bees to one of the many Lewes people who are waiting to start keeping bees naturally. Write these numbers down: swarmcatchers Adrienne Campbell 07774793158 or Mike Millwood 07971216075</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i>photo: Natural Beekeeping Trust </i></div>adrienne campbellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12328146492829739122noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1890197202528203849.post-88818095138042517632011-05-19T23:11:00.001+01:002011-05-20T23:51:13.003+01:00a riot of flowers<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrIzqRxk1WWicEo33a5ulFV49f6hZJAoCFRcAIK_N8-fHheJy_GYvneSKzVX9WPH7JOt2ATAnoqlozZEiUsRZD8eh6qQta2oUgdIMqjDojyFBQ_d8-1bRLEF2OjJBCfwLIxWpUxaUkAMzn/s1600/swallows.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrIzqRxk1WWicEo33a5ulFV49f6hZJAoCFRcAIK_N8-fHheJy_GYvneSKzVX9WPH7JOt2ATAnoqlozZEiUsRZD8eh6qQta2oUgdIMqjDojyFBQ_d8-1bRLEF2OjJBCfwLIxWpUxaUkAMzn/s320/swallows.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="article" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">There’s a riot of flowers going on and it’s hard to ignore. Roses and honeysuckle hanging over the twitten walls flood my senses with their smells and gorgeous appearance. It’s blissful – just imagine how a honeybee feels on a day like this. </div><div class="article" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
I’ve been so distracted by fear for the future of life on earth that I’ve been hooked out of the pure pleasure of existence. And yet I’m getting reminders that the future isn’t a linear scenario. Although I feel sad that the starlings who normally chatter in the lime tree near my house are no longer there, and the housemartin who has inhabited my neighbour’s roof for a decade hasn’t returned this year, I’ve also been pleased to see some species return. In my woods, the small pearl bordered fritillary, a butterfly that had shrunk down to only a few mating pairs in Sussex, has made a delightful comeback – I saw about 30 on one day last week. </div><div class="article" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
My friend Persephone sent me an article about the reappearance of a <a href="http://news.mongabay.com/2011/0518-hance_redtreerat.html">red tree rat</a> in Colombia which had been thought to have become extinct a century ago. And I’m over the moon to hear that the <a href="http://greatbustard.org/">Great Bustard</a> was reintroduced to Wiltshire from Russia in 2009 after a long absence from the UK. I last saw one of these amazing birds, which can grow to a metre tall and weigh 20kg, a while ago - stuffed - in the Booth Museum in Brighton and had never forgotten it. So perhaps, even if species withdraw, they can return given the right conditions, and this has to be one of the future scenarios.</div><div class="article" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
The problem with fear is that it makes me (us) ill and that’s why I got cancer a while ago. I choose to live. So I’ve come up with a plan: no newspapers, keep the internet to a minimum, and take a break from the stories of mass extinction for a while. Of course, I’m still going to live simply, because that’s what makes me happy anyway. I’m going to smell the roses for a while. </div><div class="article" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i>Picture by Nick Robinson</i></div>adrienne campbellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12328146492829739122noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1890197202528203849.post-4512544388474769322011-05-13T09:01:00.000+01:002011-05-19T23:13:14.205+01:00web site<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnmwCDe4dPagqNbU4-kof8HK7_Ohv6JO_hRVi0Ex9ybH7SXQWQ-ZWSQOVW-4bEYc-wIXhRprXFooE4KoM39sHqp_IjuSZ4Tw4YqRdjQccQakhMA1R0Bt_gjHockSgdtjYMNRctGOkHjxaB/s1600/moths.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnmwCDe4dPagqNbU4-kof8HK7_Ohv6JO_hRVi0Ex9ybH7SXQWQ-ZWSQOVW-4bEYc-wIXhRprXFooE4KoM39sHqp_IjuSZ4Tw4YqRdjQccQakhMA1R0Bt_gjHockSgdtjYMNRctGOkHjxaB/s320/moths.jpg" width="238" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Take a walk towards the bridge out of town, preferably with spookable children, and you’ll come across an enormous web created by ermine caterpillars over entire trees. A notice from Lewes District Council warns us not to touch the exotic caterpillers, which have stripped bare the trees and are hanging in clusters of web bags.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
I find the notice, like the one at County Hall I mentioned last week, rather condescendingly human-centric. The reality is that we humans are as endangered as those beings we well-meaningly seek to protect. We utterly depend on all life to sustain us, not simply as ecosystems services, such as soil to purify water, plants to anchor carbon and willows to soak up flood plains, but as beings in their own right. </div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/may/09/biodiversity-its-the-ecology-stupid">A Guardian editorial</a> this week wrote that ‘although the cost of conserving biodiversity will be considerable, the price of not doing so could be truly terrible’. And <a href="http://www.brightonfestivalfringe.org.uk/ticketing/listing.aspx?ev=2846&et=3&ed=14508">the Funeral for Lost Species</a> being held this weekend by my friend Persephone is all about remembering the ones who have gone and perhaps cherishing a little more the ones who are being obliterated by us.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
Meanwhile, an eviction notice (court attendance Tuesday 17 May 9-11am, Brighton County court) has been served on the people occupying the land at St Anne’s School to prevent its demolition and sale, without consultation. If you care about this 3.5 acre of biodiverse wild land which should really be kept as a park or growing space for not only the humans but for all the other beings of Lewes, please come and help out (entrance at Rotten Row) or email <a href="mailto:stannesdiggers@gmail.com">stannesdiggers@gmail.com</a> or turn up en masse at 9am outside the court.<br />
<br />
Photograph courtesy of Abbie Stanton. </div>adrienne campbellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12328146492829739122noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1890197202528203849.post-37659540742324181782011-05-05T15:16:00.000+01:002011-05-05T15:16:24.006+01:00whose land is it, anyway?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7HgUB0UjvLpR8I9qj4_ojYrMFDE-wTJiiMXdtlxQHv1dzIawJCgcIWQu53pl5Lh_xTtUrJgrj_0KW46W8mdaqRDBd3UCHIglvaky4mJR8aqb8GvtXRCVqRDk8_a7-YOY-n5gV5KgYy7pq/s1600/biodiversity.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7HgUB0UjvLpR8I9qj4_ojYrMFDE-wTJiiMXdtlxQHv1dzIawJCgcIWQu53pl5Lh_xTtUrJgrj_0KW46W8mdaqRDBd3UCHIglvaky4mJR8aqb8GvtXRCVqRDk8_a7-YOY-n5gV5KgYy7pq/s320/biodiversity.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">At the climate camp last week there were discussions of what to write on a banner to drop off the side of County Hall. ‘Get off my land’ was a popular choice: after all, whose land and whose council is it anyway? </div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The Climate Camp passed peacefully and met its main aims (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B14oEZFLcHQ&feature=player_embedded#at=142">see this sweet short video</a>): to practice and demonstrate living lightly together on the land as well as carrying out peaceful direct actions against nearby climate ‘offenders’. But, as one <a href="http://brightonclimateaction.org.uk/a-principle-worth-fighting-for/">interesting column asked</a>, is that all that Climate Camp is for? Is there a call to work more deeply with locals on their issues? And a Lewes <a href="http://www.open.ac.uk/openlearn/nature-environment/the-environment/growing-plants-growing-communities-climate-camp-veggie-gardens-and-local-politics">academic reminded us</a> of the role of local in preserving things we value when democratic routes fail.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
A consensus at the closing of the camp agreed that a group of people – activists, homeless people and local residents – stay on the site as long as possible to buy time for Lewes residents and councils to allow us to have a say in the future use of the three acres of prime ground in central Lewes. We put in some Freedom of Information requests, with the help of a government employee codenamed Puffles, for information about what has been discussed, planned and surveyed for its future. Rumours abound from within County Hall that demolition of the buildings had been imminent. We need to know. Whose land is it to dispose of for building, car parks and the like? STAND – St Anne’s Diggers – is forming around this issue and will be putting a call out for participation. The grounds are open for any resident visitors or campers as well as every Sunday a picnic from noon and community meeting at 3pm.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
Last week, as I was scouting St Anne's boundaries with County Hall, I came across a little sign hidden in the undergrowth next to one of County Hall’s car parks: ‘Designated Biodiversity Area’. This was a thin strip of cow parsley and long grass, a portion of which acted as a dumping ground for the clippings from the lawns. The huge County Hall site itself is probably 98% buildings, car park and lawn. It says a lot about the mentality of our council that it even trashes, unopposed by any employees, the tiny area allocated to ‘biodiversity’.</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
Because biodiversity means ‘wild’. It means the place that many other beings live, because they can’t live on concrete and lawns. That’s what’s so lovely about the St Anne’s site: it has been kept secret and virtually unused for seven years, allowed to grow and stretch into itself. Having spent 10 nights on this land, belly to belly, I have started to fall in love with it, as have other Lewesians coming onto it for the first time. Strong words, but a completely natural response to a gorgeous terrain. It’s this visceral response that helps us to care about natural places, especially wild places which are inhabited by the other beings such as trees, bats, birds, hedgehogs and bugs and which makes us grieve when those places are ripped up and turned into money. </div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I’ve seen a strong desire to interact with this place, to tame it, plant it, inhabit it with treehouses – turn it into something for our use – and County Hall says it has a fiduciary responsibility to make the most money possible from land. But my personal sense is, for now, let’s leave it, let’s visit it lightly, let’s go gently and leave only footprints. Because, whose land is it, anyway?</div>adrienne campbellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12328146492829739122noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1890197202528203849.post-45424108032886471472011-04-28T13:36:00.000+01:002011-04-28T13:36:58.925+01:00pass it on<div class="article" style="clear: left; float: left; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img height="267" src="http://www.vivalewes.com/image/v3_100_00245.jpg" width="400" /></div><br />
<div class="article" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I’m sitting in the far corner of the grounds of the disused St Anne’s School in Lewes. It’s 6am and the blackbirds are just ending their chorus. I’m on gate duty, part of a 24 hour rota guarding three gates. <a href="http://brightonclimateaction.org.uk/direct-action/" target="_blank">Climate Camp</a> South East, who is occupying (squatting) the 3 acres of unused land, is meticulous about security: past climate camps have taught us that the police can behave aggressively and unlawfully. </div><div class="article" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Climate Camp came to Lewes last Thursday and is spending a week modelling how to live lightly on the land, working collectively using consensus; inviting local people to visit; and training in creative direct actions culminating in a non-violent direct action on one of the many climate crime scenes in Sussex: perhaps the proposed biofuels plant near Shoreham <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-12161726">, oil drilling in ancient woodland in the National Park</a> or the Newhaven incinerator. One of the benefits of climate camps is that people learn to self-organise and self-manage – an essential skill in the coming age of less stuff and more connection.</div><div class="article" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
Bizarrely, soon after we occupied the site, we heard from several sources that East Sussex County Council, the owners of the site, had recently condemned the building and that demolition was imminent – apparently common knowledge in County Hall. ESCC even, we were told, believed we had occupied the site in protest of the demolition. </div><div class="article" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="article" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">So the climate camp called a community meeting on Tuesday, attended by 70 people including a representative from all three levels of Lewes councils, to discuss the issue. We sat on the land, outside. By the end of the meeting it was dark but it was clear that although ESCC was evasive about demolition, Lewes District Council was prepared to do everything in its power to prevent the building from being demolished and that Lewes residents wished to use the land and start to vision for future interim uses, which ESCC said it would be open to proposals. </div><div class="article" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="article" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Although it seems likely that ESCC will try to maximise the money it can make from (our) land by intensive development deals, possibly already in the pipeline, it does seem possible that Lewes resident activists can make a stand. Indeed, the residents at the meeting formed a group called STAND – St Anne’s Diggers. Their first events are a Royal Weeding this Friday and a Beltane Picnic on the land at noon on Sunday. Everyone is welcome. Pass it on.</div>adrienne campbellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12328146492829739122noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1890197202528203849.post-52942868044099157432011-04-21T13:13:00.001+01:002011-04-28T13:16:31.914+01:00escape like squirrels<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzeWC34_QxSdihpnpcj3798kCGmDo3JBkqnJl_1pkw1enYQ8s8JBJetrB8PL_mNrfvdGmGyijM6_k-9eivl7EKy29huGeXEEV3Z9MXXK7Csarnkb9L71HXuK5Ajry_55uGBS5Lv6GoThD8/s1600/ovesco+launch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzeWC34_QxSdihpnpcj3798kCGmDo3JBkqnJl_1pkw1enYQ8s8JBJetrB8PL_mNrfvdGmGyijM6_k-9eivl7EKy29huGeXEEV3Z9MXXK7Csarnkb9L71HXuK5Ajry_55uGBS5Lv6GoThD8/s320/ovesco+launch.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>It was incredible to witness the level of support for community energy generation at the launch this week of Ovesco’s share issue for Britain’s first community-owned solar power station <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikegrenville/tags/ovesco/">(see photos here)</a>. The launch raised the amount pledged close to the £200,000 mark, with a total of<br />
£306, 000 to be raised by the end of May. I feel so glad to be part of a community where big visions are held and then realised together – despite all the power struggles going on at government level. There’s still time to make a pledge at the <a href="http://www.ovesco.co.uk/">Ovesco website</a>. </div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
For those who also like to agitate in a more physical way during these strange and disturbing times and the tipping points of climate chaos loom ever nearer while our leaders procrastinate, a week-long Climate Camp is coming to a place near Lewes this weekend. It’s shaping up to be a brilliant event for anyone who would like to become a little more radical. In true Climate Camp style, the venue will be a surprise: watch this<a href="http://brightonclimateaction.org.uk/"> wonderful website</a> closely for news and directions, and come along for a cup of tea and a spot of creative direct action. </div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br />
DH Lawrence: ‘When we get out of the glass bottles of our ego and when we escape like squirrels turning in the cages of our personality and get into the forests again, we shall shiver with cold and fright but things will happen to us so that we don't know ourselves. Cool, unlying life will rush in, and passion will make our bodies taut with power. We shall stamp our feet with new power and old things will fall down, we shall laugh, and institutions will curl up like burnt paper’.</div>adrienne campbellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12328146492829739122noreply@blogger.com0